UK online net spending soars

The amount of cash spent on internet advertising in the UK soared last year, according to figures compiled by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) on behalf of the Advertising Association (AA).

The trade group says spending on online advertising in the UK rose 73 per cent during 2005, taking ad revenues to £1.13bn - way past other media such as consumer and business mags, radio, outdoor and cinema.

According to the figures, online classified advertising rose 78 per cent last year to £748m, while online display advertising rose 64 per cent to £383m.

At the same time, ad spending in national and regional newspapers, radio and direct all fell, although TV ad spend rose 3.6 per cent to £4.1bn.

Overall, ad expenditure in the United Kingdom rose by 2.1 per cent last year compared with 2004, but that's down on 6 per cent revenue growth the previous year.

Advertising execs blamed the slowdown on "slackening in consumer spending and other adverse economic circumstances".

The figures support remarks made by media giant Rupert Murdoch recently in which he told the newspaper industry that it needed to embrace the iPod generation or risk losing out in the digital world. Speaking last week, he said it was up to newspapers to provide content via a variety of different platforms such as the web, iPods, mobile phones or laptops to reach their audience. ®